Page 44 of Night of the Witch
Is the cloud bigger than it should be?
Does it…sparka little, like a fire, like more magic than I should be capable of?
I don’t think about it. I can’t. This is my one chance, and Iwilltake it.
I heave my body into his, knocking him off-balance, and I spin, not hesitating as I hurl myself out the window. The clear, empty space opens for me—
But then—
Then—
There’s nothing there.Nothing.
But my body rebounds off that nothingness as though I tossed myself onto a wall, and I bounce back into the room, the breath knocked out of me.
The kapitän is still coughing behind me, still distracted by my spell, so I leap again—
And bounce right back into the house.
What—
What did he do?
I whirl on him and launch another protection satchel. He dodges it, teetering left so it vanishes down the lower level shaft.
“What spell did you cast on this place?” I shriek at him. “Are you—are you awitch?”
He’s not, though; I would have sensed it. I would havefeltit, the magic humming in his blood.
The kapitän lurches for me, but I hold up one of my last two satchels, and he stops, arms out, a fine dusting of spell powder graying his hair and skin.
“Of course not,” he says, voice gravelly. He coughs again. “There’s no spell. It’s a house fort.”
“A house—no, I can’tleave!” I point at the door. “You put a barrier so I can’t—”
The blank look on his face stops me.
There’s no magic in him. He didn’t cast anything, but there is magic around that opening.
Sosomeonecast a spell.
I feel the weight of the protection satchel in my hand. A satchel I’d intended to use to stop onlyhimfrom harming me.
My eyes go to the opening. It’s a two-story drop; I likely would’ve broken at least an arm.
Was it my protection spell that kept me from jumping out of this building?
It shouldn’t have been that powerful, that uncontrolled. The spell I cast was againstattackers, not against all bodily harm.
My mind heaves.
I remember the spell I cast on the kapitän’s sister. Hilde.
How she was just…gone.
Did she run away? Or did my spell actuallysendher away? Somewhere safe, somewhere the hexenjägerscouldn’treach her.
Unease crawls up my spine. Something isn’t right. With my magic. With me, maybe.
